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How Does Chillingworth Forgive In The Scarlet Letter

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Could one small choice to not forgive change a man’s life so much that he turns into a completely different man? In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth, once a man of study and education, turn into a devil seeking to destroy. Though Chillingworth had not been a man of warm affection, his home in Amsterdam with his wife Hester Prynne was at one time a happy time (203). Chillingworth was deformed and misshapen (83). However Chillingworth was not looked down on by others, a townsman in Boston said Roger Chillingworth was, “ A certain learned man, English by birth, but who had long dwelt in Amsterdam, whence, some good time ago was minded to cross over and cast in his lot with us of Massachusetts” (68). However …show more content…

After hearing this, Chillingworth is furious with Hester Prynne but also with the man who has done this. He decides to find the man who had done this and seek revenge, yet he does not reveal his relation to Hester Prynne and forces her to keep it a secret as well or the man she had committed adultery with would be destroyed. One small choice to not forgive but instead seek revenge changes Chillingworth into an evil physician an a devil who seeks to destroy. Roger Chillingworth is first seen in The Scarlet Letter by Hester Prynne while she is standing on the scaffold with her child, Pearl (66-67). Hester recognizes him and he notices her reconciliation and motions for her to remain silent and not acknowledge him (67). Chillingworth does not know what his wife has done and enquires of a townsperson what she has done (67). He learns that she has committed adulty and is refusing to reveal the man’s name. Chillingworth was not pleased an seeks for an opportunity to speak with his wife Hester Prynne. After standing all day on the scaffold Hester and Pearl are distressed and a physician is called. Roger Chillingworth however is a physician is is

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Roger Chillingworth is speaking to Hester in this quote about how much her cheating affected him. Since the author did not give very much information about Roger before he returned to Boston, it was difficult to measure exactly how he had changed since learning of the scarlet letter. Through his previous words and actions regarding Hester and especially Reverend Dimmesdale, Roger depicts himself as a man filled with hatred and focussed on revenge. Before mentioning his old self, Roger Chillingworth told Hester about Reverend Dimmesdale’s suffering since he had become somewhat of his personal physician. Roger says that the reverend sensed “an eye was looking curiously into him,” which, undoubtedly, represents the presence of Roger Chillingworth,

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Even if one make a regret able mistake, should that person be shamed for a past human error? Scarlett Letter takes place in Salem Massachusetts around the time frame where if something seemed strange to others you were accused of being a witch by all the Puritans and Quakers. If a person was accused of such accusations they were usually hung or stoned. Miss Hester Prynne’s is an independent mother who is doing all she can to make sure she keeps her child since it her against the world. In Nathaniel Hawthorne 's book, “The Scarlett Letter” the story ranges from compassion to forgiveness with Little Pearl as the symbol of savior in Miss Hester Prynne’s life.

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The Scarlet Letter introduces us to a few characters. Two being Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. These two characters seem to be the polar opposite. They also have a few things that they have in common. First off, Chillingworth is described as a very inhuman character.

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In 1964, Lawrence Kohlberg, a psychologist introduced the idea that humans evolved through different stages of morality. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne male characters exemplify a moral development as the story unfolds. In particular, Arthur Dimmesdale’s morality differs from the beginning of the novel to the ending of the novel. His morality undergoes continuity and change by constantly changing from selfishness, social order, and social contract. Dimmesdale undergoes the morality maintaining the social order and being considerate of others to eventually being selfish and only thinks about himself.

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Chillingworth witness his wife, Hester, on the scaffold when he first arrives back from his voyage. From that moment of recognition, Chillingworth had every opportunity to resolve this conflict without wrath. Nonetheless, he chooses to seek vengeance as he conveys to Hester, “I shall seek this man as I have sought truth in books… his fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands”

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Hawthorne immediately corrects himself, and says that Chillingworth is more like “a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man’s bosom” (125). These comparisons of Chillingworth to a miner and a sexton, and the truth to gold and a jewel emphasizes this obsession that Chillingworth must finding the truth. Chillingworth is “the leech” and he 's by Dimmesdale’s side making him sick. The longer Chillingworth stays with Dimmesdale, the worse Dimmesdale’s condition gets. This is his newfound passion and his persistence won’t allow him to end this hunt for the truth.

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Roger Chillingworth: The Avenger In The Scarlet Letter, there are several different types of characters that readers can identify as or relate to. As a reader, one can relate to Roger Chillingworth, through his motives of revenge, love, and pain. Chillingworth is transformed negatively by his plot to torment and stalk Dimmesdale, all because Hester’s mistake of infidelity. Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the theme that revenge is just as bad as adultery, through the trial and subsequent changes experienced by Roger Chillingworth.

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Prompt: In a five-paragraph essay, trace the development of Roger Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne AND explain how he is perceived by other characters in the story. In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is a flakey man that has a gradual but note-worthy change as the story progresses. At first Roger Chillingworth, as he comes back from his travels, seems (despite his unattractive appearance) like a friendly, approachable, and well-educated man.

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This takes a toll on his physical being. While Hester openly wears the scarlet “A” on her chest, and deals with the scorn and scrutiny of the community, Chillingworth hides his revenge. This hidden agenda, this anger, this hatred only serves to hurt him in the

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Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne exposes the blindness of the Puritan people through the treatment of Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale’s external characters. Hester Prynne is labeled as an adulteress and mistreated by society because of their unwillingness to see her true character. Chillingworth, the husband of Hester, leads the town to believe he is an honorable man and skillful doctor, when his true intents root from his vindictive nature Finally, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester’s lover and the father of her baby, acts as the perfect man therefore the town views him as an exemplar model, while he is truly a sinner. In the novel, Hawthorne portrays Hester as a strong, resilient woman, though the members of her community

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“The injured husband” realized that “he need deal no further” with Hester, “Her punishment is sure,” but that he found that “the man too” should “be punished,” but that to punish him “he must know him.” When Chillingworth “finds him out” who Hester sinned with, he “does punish him” and “brings him to death.” (Londhe 2) He dedicates himself to finding the man Hester sinned with, because he realizes that Hester does not need punishment, so he finds the man, Dimmesdale, he tortures him both physically, through giving him medication that does more harm than good, and emotionally, through asking questions. Roger Chillingworth’s new identity came with “a new purpose; dark, it is true, if not guilty, but of force enough to engage the full strength of his faculties.”

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550 Words | 3 Pages

Chillingworth shows no restraint in persecuting Dimmesdale to achieve his ends. When he arrives in the town he finds that a man has committed adultery with his wife, which “[leads] him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.” From that moment, Chillingworth swears to exact his retribution. He forms a plan which will only satisfy his selfish desire to destroy the man that wronged him.

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Hester Prynne, who is the main character in the novel, committed adultery against her husband, Roger Chillingworth, while she believed he was lost at sea. Roger returns to town, and makes it his goal to get revenge on Arthur Dimmesdale, the father of baby Pearl. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Roger Chillingworth to express the idea that people view other and themselves in many different ways. Hawthorne uses Roger Chillingworth to show determination and forgiveness in the novel. When Chillingworth is talking to Hester about the father of her baby, he states, “I shall seek this man, as I have sought sought truth in books; as I have sought gold in alchemy”(Hawthorne 70).

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In Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, a women, Hester Pryne, who lives in the village becomes pregnant after her husband allegedly passes away. In the puritan community, this is a sin of adultery and Hester is brought to the scaffold in front of the entire village to be shamed. By the middle of the novel, it is realized that Arthur Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl, Hester’s baby. Roger Chillingworth comes back and conceives the idea of Dimmesdale being the father and starts his vengeance. In Hawthorne’s the Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale differ in their personalities, their positions in the village, and their relationship with Hester.

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